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Feb-20-2009
RAK Half Generates Two Pending World Records at Intermediate Points
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Although today's RAK Half-Marathon winners in the United Arab Emirates did not break the existing half-marathon world records, two pending world records were set at intermediate points, a senior IAAF official reported.
Intermediate race leader Deribe Merga of Ethiopia passed the 15 km point in 41:29, equalling the IAAF-ratified world record set by Kenyan Felix Limo at the Zevenheuvelenloop in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 2001. Race winner Patrick Makau crossed the 20 km mark in 55:38, surpassing by ten seconds Haile Gebrselassie's IAAF-ratified record set in Phoenix, Ariz., in 2006. (Samuel Wanjiru passed 20 km in 55:31 at the City-Pier-City Half-Marathon in Den Haag in 2007, but the time was not accepted as a record because there was no manual timer to back-up the transponder reading.)
"The course was measured by IAAF 'A' measurer, John Kunkeler, and will have to be validated as part of the official procedure," said IAAF senior manager for road running, Sean Wallace-Jones, who watched the race from a lead vehicle.
Race organizers made sure the distances to these intermediate points were correctly measured, and had ChampionChip timing mats plus three manuel timekeepers at each point in accordance with IAAF record ratification prodecures. The IAAF permits world records to be set at intermediate points in road races provided the same measurement and timing requirements are met for recording records at the finish line.
The IAAF policy is different from that of the independent Association of Road Running Statisticians (ARRS) which does not recognize world records set at intermediate points. The ARRS feels that there is insufficient accuracy in measurement and timing industry-wide at intermediate points, and they also argue that allowing records to be set at intermediate points undermines the staging of races at those specific distances. For instance, they argue, there is a reduced incentive to stage 15-K and 20-K races if world records can be set at those distances in half-marathons.
Also, although the IAAF does not recognize world junior records set on the roads, Ethiopian Abebu Gelan, fourth in the women's race, ran the fastest-ever half-marathon by a junior in 1:07:57. Gelan is just 19 years-old, born 18-Jan-1990, according to the statistics Web site, www.tilastopaja.org.
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